Before the first Thanksgiving feast in the fall of 1621, consider the Pilgrims’ treacherous journey to America and how so many died of disease en route. Think of how, after arriving in America, more died of starvation while others, having risked it all to come here, survived and built a self-sufficient economy for themselves.Sounds a bit like entrepreneurship and the make-or-break world of startup life, no?

That’s the argument made in a piece for Forbes by Alan Hall, the founder of Grow America, who posits that the Pilgrims provided nine valuable lessons for entrepreneurs. The risks the Pilgrims took are not unlike what entrepreneurs go through when they quit a full-time job to start a business, perhaps bootstrapping it themselves to get off the ground, he writes. The other common attributes include flexibility (the Pilgrims meant to land in Virginia and ended up in Cape Cod), persistence (the need for survival will instill that), and the sacrifices involved in starting a new venture.

At the beginning, we sacrifice full-time wages, time with our families and very often a good night’s sleep. But as William Bradford, the second governor of Plymouth Colony, once said: “All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.”

Hall doesn’t get into what the Native Americans taught Pilgrims, but does mention the Pilgrims' partnership with one another and with the Wampanoag tribe, with whom they signed a 50-year peace treaty.

The Wampanoags already had established themselves in the New World, and, while they weren't quite on the level of venture capitalists, they were generous guests who arrived at the first Thanksgiving with five deer. Squanto taught the natives how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter. Wampanoag leader Massasoit helped the Pilgrims through the first winter by donating food.

After getting an MA in journalism from Syracuse University, Teresa worked as a general assignment newspaper reporter—general on purpose because besides the usual city hall and police articles, there was the chance to fly an F-18 with the Blue Angels and tag along with bounty hunters on a stakeout—all good preparation for covering entrepreneurs.

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